Lac du Flambeau monthly payments to LdF tribe for roads called into question

The three-member Lac du Flambeau town board was challenged last week to remove itself from ongoing negotiations with the tribal council of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

The negotiations between the town board and the tribal council are with regard to expired easements on portions of tribal land on four roads — Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane.

The negotiations began after the town and tribal council agreed to a 90-day, $60,000 deal that had the town paying the tribe the money to re-open the four roads that had been barricaded by the tribe since Jan. 31. 

The barricading left property owners on the roads, and on others tied into them, with hardship of varying degrees and resulted in claims and lawsuits against the town. 

The intent was for the town board and tribal council to meet during that 90-day period to work out a long-term resolution but in June, the 90-day agreement expired.

The roads remained open, however, as the town and tribe reached an agreement that had the town paying $20,000  from May to June to keep the roads open.

Shortly thereafter, the amount changed as the tribal council, starting with the June to July payment, wanted an additional $2,000 each month. 

The payment by the town to cover the period from June 12 to July 12 was $22,000. 

At the July 12 meeting, town chairman Matt Gaulke reported that he  had delivered to the tribal offices the week before a check for $24,000 to cover July 12 to Aug. 12. 

Under the terms the town board agreed to, that will continue until the matter is resolved. 

The monthly payments could conceivably hit the $32,000 mark by mid-December if nothing is resolved. 

The addition of that amount to the initial $60,000 that was paid by the town to the tribe to get the barricades removed was the basis for comments Lac du Flambeau resident Bill McCutchin made to the town board.

Driving a wedge

Reading from a prepared script, McCutchin said he “was telling the town board of Lac du Flambeau to stop wasting taxpayer dollars” by making the monthly payments to the tribe.

“The payments are driving a wedge deeper between the communities of LDF,” he read. “The payments are of no value in resolving the four roads issue.”

McCutchin said he feels the payments have created what he called “fort people.”

“In colonial days the fort people stood outside the fort and looked for handouts,” he read from his text. “This land issue is over a decade old and is a problem created by the U.S. government over a century ago and not the taxpayers of LDF.”

McCutchin said Lac du Flambeau taxpayers are “scapegoats” who are “being punished” for the lack of involvement and action by the government in the past. 

“Our town board and the tribal council have both turned a blind eye to this issue for years,” he read. “We, as taxpayers, did not create this problem and demand that it be resolved but not at the taxpayers, tribal and citizens expense.”

McCutchin said what the town board is proposing is “approximately 2 percent of the taxpayers” are telling the other 98 percent “that we have to support them,” meaning the residents of Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane who he referred to as “fort people.”

“No!” McCutchin said. “The 98 percent should not have to do this. It is not our problem.”

He said the U.S. government, the state of Wisconsin, the Lac du Flambeau tribe and the town of Lac du Flambeau and the landowners on the four roads “need to work this out but not at the taxpayers’ expense.”

“I may sound like one person, speaking just for myself, but I’m speaking for the majority of taxpayers in LDF,” McCutchin said.

 He then called for town supervisors Gloria Cobb, a tribal member who is employed with the tribe’s health and human services department, and Bob Hanson, a retired attorney who has been a tribal judge, to “immediately exempt themselves” from future negotiating with the tribal council regarding the road issue “for it is my belief there is a strong possibility of conflict of interest because of their employment by the tribal government.”

McCutchin said Gaulke should also remove himself “because of prior involvement in the roads issue” and he called for establishment of a roads committee comprised of “LDF taxpayers for any future bargaining on this particular issue.” 

He ended his comments by paraphrasing a 1932 quote from British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.

“When the authorities also are stupid, they will tend to side with the stupid children and acquiesce, at least tacitly, in rough treatment for those who show intelligence,” McCutchin read from his statement. “In that case, a society will be produced in which all the important positions will be won by those whose stupidity enables them to please the herd. Such a society will have corrupt politicians, ignorant schoolmasters, policemen who cannot catch criminals, and judges who condemn innocent men.”

Not progress

When McCutchin finished his prepared remarks, Hanson said he had a question for him. 

“Why do you think I work for the tribe?” he asked. 

“Are you a tribal judge?” McCutchin asked. 

“I was,” Hanson told him. “Until about ... last December.”

“I was told you still were presently,” McCutchin said. 

“I may still be on the list but I haven’t had a case in a long time,” Hanson said. “I was working as an interim judge for the tribe.”

“But you still are an interim judge,” McCutchin said. 

“I could be,” Hanson said. “I could be.”

“You still are,” McCutchin replied. 

“I’m not beholden to the tribe,” Hanson said. 

McCutchin began to tell him he still was when Gaulke interrupted. 

“OK,” he said. “You both made your comments.”

Lac du Flambeau resident Sally Fermanich, who has property on one of the roads, told McCutchin she understood it was a tax issue “but I just wanted some clarity around ... I believe there’s been some money given by the title insurance companies for some of these roads.”

“No,” Gaulke said. “We haven’t received anything from the title companies.”

 He also reiterated that he delivered to the tribe the latest payment, the $24,000 for July 12 to Aug. 12, the week before. 

Fermanich, noting the most recent scheduled meeting between the town board and the tribal council was canceled, asked what the plan was going forward. 

Gaulke explained the meeting Fermanich was referring to was a quarterly meeting the town board and tribal council conduct to discuss “community matters.”

“I don’t know how it got out there that it was canceled and we were discussing roads,” he said, adding that the town has “reached out” to the tribe to set up another meeting “regarding the possibility of mediation and that type of thing but we just haven’t heard back from them yet.”

“We’re attempting to set that up,” Gaulke said.

He was asked why the town should make the monthly payments if the tribe “wasn’t willing to come to the table.”

Including the $24,000 payment the town has made to the tribe as of July 12, the total paid has been $106,000. 

“How many meetings have there been for this $106,000?” Lac du Flambeau resident Kay Hoff asked. 

“Three,” Gaulke said.

“That’s not progress,” a woman in the back of the room said. 

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound good,” Hoff said. 

Gaulke asked if there were any more comments, and there weren’t, but he didn’t address McCutchin’s demand that he step away from the road issue and instead moved on to the next agenda item. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].